Seville - the land of heat and oranges

After we said a tearful goodbye to Tossa de Mar, we went back to Barcelona for the day, then took a night train to Seville. Buying the train ticket had caused us some problems (horrible lines at the station every time we went to buy the ticket, so we had to call to reserve and then go back to the station to pick them up), but when we were waiting to board the train Leo noticed that our tickets said "preferred" on them, which got us into the swanky upper class lounge, where they plied us with free beer and snacks.

When we got off the train at 8 in the morning, it already felt hot out. We dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and started wandering Seville's old city, with it's winding streets and beautifully painted and tiled walls. After our experience in Barcelona at the bullfight, (for some reason) we were both eager to learn more about how the fights worked, so we visited the Plaza de Toros. Seville is where fighting bulls on foot began. They give tours in English every half hour, talking you through the history of bullfighting, and taking you around the ring and in the back areas. Leo is already planning a trip to go back to Seville to see a bullfight in the amazing stadium. Desperately searching for places out of the sun (it was now about 38 degrees Celsius) we went into the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede, which is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. This place was overwhelming, for lack of a better word. It was about 10 churches held together under one roof. We went up the Giralda, which had once been a minaret, but was turned into the bell tower for the church. From the top you could see the entire city. When Leo and I travel, we usually spend a lot more time and energy seeing the sites than eating fancy meals. But we decided to have one really, really nice meal at the end of our Spanish tour at the La Alquería in the Hacienda Benazuza, also know as the El Bulli hotel. Some of you may be familiar with El Bulli and it's head chef Ferrán Adrià...for those of you who aren't, our friend Lars just went to El Bulli, and posted his insights and observations here. The El Bulli hotel part owned by Ferrán Adrià and the restaurant, La Alquería, has two Michelin stars and serves a "best of" menu of El Bulli dishes. Before we left for Spain, we had a Spanish friend of ours make a reservation for us, and on the day we were supposed to go to the restaurant, I called them to confirm...as I was a bit paranoid that we'd get out there and they'd send us packing. I had also printed out what I thought were good directions from Google maps for how to get there, since it was about 20 km outside of Seville. We got dressed up, got in a cab, and headed into the country. According to my maps, the route was easy, and would take us about 25 minutes...after stopping 4 times for directions, which took an additional 20 minutes, we finally got there (I guess Google maps works better in large c isities with street signs). Aside from the two of us, and a very fancy wedding party, there was no one there. I thought a place like this would be packed on a Saturday night, full of foodies, and want-to-be food journalists, taking pictures of themselves outside the restaurant to post on their blogs...but there was no one. We were a bit early for our 9 pm reservation, so we got the most expensive gin and tonics we'd ever had, then wandered around the hotel. At 9, we wandered into the empty restaurant (I was still freaked out that we were in the wrong place, or on the wrong evening), but we were seated and then began one of the most incredible meals I'd ever had. We told the waiter (who spoke very little English) that we wanted the tasting menu. I asked if I could see what was on the menu, and he smiled and told me that at the end of the meal he'd give us a copy of the menu, but the chef wanted it all to be a surprise. Dish after dish, for 27 courses, we were happily surprised. And by the end of our meal, the restaurant was full of people

The meal began with starters, then moved on to tapas, then the main courses, and finally dessert. By the first of the tapas, Leo was so full he felt sick, so I decided to help him eat an amazing fois gras, watermelon, and tomato dish as well as one with fois gras and mushrooms. But then, by the time I hit my first main course, Leo had recovered and had to help me out. The problem with these incredible, enormous meals is that there is too much food to comfortably eat in one sitting. I think it should be spread out over lunch and dinner, so you can take a break, take a nap, then start all over again. But it was an awesome meal...my favorite item was the lobster gazpacho!
On our final day, we went to the Alcazar, which was originally a Moorish fort, but became the palace of the rulers of Seville. This was the hottest day we had in Spain (I think it reached 39) and we spent most our time finding shady areas and bars to sit in. The heat was intense, and we could easily understand why lots of tourists didn't flock to Seville in July. But we made the best of it, drank some cervezas and lots of water, ate some Iberico ham, and eventually, and sadly, made our way to the airport for our flight home.

When we got home, we immediately began planning our next holiday...Greece and the Greek islands in September.